Building a Global Carbon Sink

The expected growth of urban population worldwide will create immense demand for the development and construction of new housing, commercial buildings, and accompanying infrastructure over the coming quarter century. Conventional wisdom perceives this construction wave as a major source of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the associated production of cement, steel, aluminum, and other materials with significant embodied emissions. Working closely with colleagues at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, the Center for Industrial Ecology, and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research, Gray Organschi Architecture posits that it may be possible to leverage the environmental benefits of mass timber construction to mitigate the projected global impacts of climate change.